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How do you go about creating a TV thriller that feels fresh, which also pays homage to the classics that have come before it?
You turn to Luther creator Neil Cross.
The novelist and scriptwriter, who also penned the crime drama Hard Sun, recently launched his new series, The Iris Affair, on Sky, starring acting legends Niamh Algar and Tom Hollander.
When Metro sits down to speak to Neil about his latest project, we can’t help but bring up that the title sequence for each episode gives a strong 007 feel.
‘There certainly is,’ he replies. ‘There’s secret bases. There’s world changing technologies. There’s some Bond in its DNA.’
In The Iris Affair, Niamh, 33, stars as the titular character Iris Nixon, a genius puzzle solver, while Tom, 58, plays the enigmatic entrepreneur Cameron Beck.
The relationship between Cameron and Iris is complex. They first meet when Iris follows puzzle clues leading her to a piazza in Florence, where Cameron is waiting to offer her a job.
The job in question? ‘Waking up’ a mysterious technology that has the potential to change the world. But, there’s one slight problem, an eeny, meeny, miny snag – the machine could also be unimaginably dangerous.
As soon as Iris realises the gravity of the situation, she goes on the run, with Cameron nipping at her heels as he strives to track her down with his considerable resources.
Prolific actor Tom has several acclaimed thrillers under his belt, from The White Lotus to The Night Manager. However, not only does he think that The Iris Affair is ‘funnier’, but it was a unique way of working, as writer Neil was still finishing the story while they were in the process of making it, he explains.
‘You don’t know quite what’s coming. It’s actually unfurling in front of you, because Neil is writing it in front of you,’ he tells Metro.
‘Normally, if you’re reading a thing that’s complete, you know where it ends. In a way, the end of something defines who the character is. But if you don’t have the end, then you have to stay in the moment.’
On paper, Cameron might be deemed the ‘villain’ of The Iris Affair, while Iris is the ‘hero’. However, as viewers will discover as the eight episodes unravel, it’s not always that simple.
Neil previously admitted that when he was creating the character of Iris, he thought of her as a ‘bad Will Hunting’, referencing the prodigy played by Matt Damon in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting.
‘It was almost like an amalgamation of Matt Damon characters, like Good Will Hunting, Bourne meets Talented Mr Ripley,’ Niamh says, joking that Matt turned down the lead role in The Iris Affair.
The Virtues actress continues: ‘I think that’s what’s so interesting – that she’s a shapeshifter. She’s constantly trying to adapt and not get caught. It’s that ability to code-switch.
‘She’s immensely smart, but a bit detached from her own emotions. As the show progresses, they start to get in the way a little bit, which she’s not used to. She’s never had responsibility before, until she started caring about Joy [a teenager played by Meréana Tomlinson, whom Iris tutors while undercover], and that becomes problematic.
‘She thrived being a hermit, and now that she’s got friends, it’s really messed her up.’
What did Metro think of The Iris Affair?
Read Metro TV Editor Sabrina Barr’s 3.5-star review:
A high-speed car chase in the middle of sun-basked Italy. The sea glistening like an endless array of diamonds during a shoot-out. Suave suits teamed with blood, sweat and tears.
No, we’re not describing the next James Bond blockbuster, but Sky’s new TV thriller The Iris Affair, the brainchild of Luther creator Neil Cross.
The high-octane series does admittedly bear a resemblance to spy capers that have come before it.
However, in the year 2025, it still feels like a rarity for a drama of this magnitude to be led by a female protagonist, especially one who is pretty much always guaranteed to be the smartest person in the room, and could throw her opponent down on the mat with ease.
If John Luther can do it, and James Bond, why not Iris Nixon?
In The Iris Affair, genius Iris (Niamh Algar) is offered a job by entrepreneur Cameron (Tom Hollander), which involves working on a mysterious supercomputer that could change the world. When Iris first comes on board, the machine is dormant, and she needs to figure out how to wake it up.
This might sound like a straightforward task for someone with her calibre of intelligence, but as Iris delves deeper into this secretive mission, she discovers that the use of this advanced technology could have dangerous and devastating consequences.
Iris decides to do what she thinks is best – she goes into hiding, running off with important information concerning the machine that would hinder anyone else from picking up where she left off, while Cameron chases after her.
When I first started watching The Iris Affair, it appeared fairly black and white that Iris was the hero trying to save the world, and Cameron was the power-hungry villain intent on ruling it.
I was so relieved – and even more gripped – when I realised that my assumption was wrong.
Iris might be trying to save the day, but at times, she is portrayed as being completely void of emotion and able to make immmoral decisions to achieve her aims. Meanwhile, Cameron is painted as the big bad wolf, but are his intentions more noble than they might seem?
The lead characters’ flaws might make them less likeable, but they also give them more humanity. A quality that I strive to find when searching for my next binge-watch.
While creator Neil might insist that he’s not trying to spread a message about the dangers of technology advancing at a rapid pace, The Iris Affair will still leave you with a sense of wariness for the future of society as we know it.
The idea for the story of The Iris Affair came from Neil wanting to write a series that he would watch and that he couldn’t find elsewhere.
‘The Iris Affair is the first time that I have deliberately set out to create a piece of television to entertain myself,’ he says. ‘There was an Iris Affair-shaped gap. I couldn’t find the show I wanted to watch, so I had to write it.’
‘I think it doesn’t quite look, sound or feel like anything else which is on TV at the moment. In some ways, it’s a really old-fashioned adventure thriller show, and it’s about clever people up to dastardly and exciting deeds while wearing good clothes and driving nice cars in beautiful places under bright blue Mediterranean skies.’
As exhilarating as The Iris Affair can be, it could also potentially serve as a warning of the dangers of technology and how quickly it’s evolving in today’s day and age.
While Neil, 56, is ‘fascinated by the unexpected consequences of technological revolution and technological change’, he insists that he wasn’t trying to plant a deeper message in his writing.
‘I don’t think anybody can really confidently predict how big or in what direction that revolution is going to go. I think we would be foolish not to be at least anxious,’ he outlines.
‘There’s no point staying at home and stocking up on canned food, because we can’t do anything to change what’s going to happen next. That’s what makes it so scary. It’s like we’re on the edge of a cliff and it’s crumbling and we’re slipping, and we’re slipping faster and faster and faster towards which we do not know.’
Nonetheless, the screenwriter adds: ‘I’ve got nothing of any importance to say to anybody. I have no messages that I wish to convey. I have no insights into the human condition, which everybody else doesn’t have, but as far as I’m concerned, my sole and only job is for people to turn on the TV and see this show and enjoy it.’
A version of this article was originally published on October 16.
The Iris Affair is available to watch on Sky and streaming service NOW.
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